Adult Education

[Gordon]

Having spent my working like and education in the Science/Technology area when I retired I decided to educate myself better in the Arts. Since I retired over a decade ago I have attended courses and lectures on literature, history, philosophy, music etc and am about to go on a course about Berlioz this coming weekend.

I find these weekends stimulating and it is good to spent time with like minded people to restore some faith in my fellow man. I have just been booking some more for next year. I am a regular at places like Dillington in Somerset and Maddingley at Cambridge which I find very good but there are others although they seem to be in diminishing numbers as local authorities pull out.

How many here do this sort of thing on a regular basis to continue their education in areas where they did not venture when in their youth and professional lives? I am thinking about the U3A in the area but would appreciate some feedback before doing so. There's also the OU for more extended study in specific things.

It goes without saying that these boards can be a College of the Net occasionally given the amount of truly surprising expertise there is to be found here!! Not the same as weekend away though - and it lacks the good food and conviviality!!

[Dave2002]

U3A might be patchy, though quite cheap. There may be as much a focus on recreation and entertainment as on learning, but that may depend on the groups in your area. NADFAS can be quite good for arts interest, and I've heard that Probus might also suit some. There are perhaps still some courses at colleges - various languages etc. and there are quite a few in the London area, but if you"re a way out the train fares mount up.

City Lit has some good offerings - http://www.citylit.ac.uk/

I'll be interested to see if any other suggestions emerge.

[aeolium]

Adult education has been severely cut back in recent years, which is a great shame. There are few interesting courses and lectures available if you live a good distance from major cities. I have been trying to learn additional languages in recent years, first Spanish and currently Russian, the first mainly for assistance in travel, the Russian more because I am very keen to read works by Pushkin, Gogol, Akhmatova etc in the original. Languages through an adult education college can be a pain because of the hoops that the institution has to jump through to secure funding - our Spanish class had to take exams even though no-one in the class was interested in doing that.

I think the free public lectures which Gresham College in London provides are excellent and I would certainly attend some of those if I were living close enough, but at least they are available on the internet (and on a link elsewhere on the forum). Periodically there are also fine music lecture series such as that by Andras Schiff some years back on the Beethoven sonatas - again, that was London-based, but was made available as downloads by the Guardian.

Perhaps more academic institutions should follow the Gresham example and make special lecture series available more widely through the web - possibly in conjunction with BBC radio or TV. A lecture can of course be dull and it does depend to a great extent on the lecturer, but at its best, and with an eloquent expert, it can make for excellent radio.

[ChrisBennell]

If you're within reach of Reading, the WEA has some excellent courses and lecturers. It took over about 3 years ago when Reading University closed its Adult Education Department. I have attended many of these, mainly the Music topics.

See: http://weareadingadulteducation.org.uk/

[ardcarp]

but that may depend on the groups in your area

I'm afraid it does. Here in rural West Country areas it is almost non-existent...or you have to make a round trip of 75 miles to get anywhere near. The adult education unit in my nearest home town, for instance, was shut a few years ago for 'not being cost-effective'. In any case, when I decided to improve my French at that place (about 10 years ago) all that was on offer was a group of beginners, mainly of pensionable age, who hadn't even got 'school French' behind them. Good luck to them of course, but there was nothing for people who were already adequate French communicators but wanted to go beyond buying bread and asking directions and to be able to discuss literature, films politics and general culture.

[Dave2002]

I'm afraid it does. Here in rural West Country areas it is almost non-existent...or you have to make a round trip of 75 miles to get anywhere near. The adult education unit in my nearest home town, for instance, was shut a few years ago for 'not being cost-effective'. In any case, when I decided to improve my French at that place (about 10 years ago) all that was on offer was a group of beginners, mainly of pensionable age, who hadn't even got 'school French' behind them. Good luck to them of course, but there was nothing for people who were already adequate French communicators but wanted to go beyond buying bread and asking directions and to be able to discuss literature, films politics and general culture.

I am sad to hear that, and unfortunately, although it's not top of my priority list, it's a factor which I will take into account in considering a move. Although I am opposed to the very London centric allocation of resources in the UK, I do benefit from it at present. I could be happy to move away from this rather congested part of England to elsewhere in the UK, but the thought that might mean moving from an area with a surfeit of culture, arts, learning activities, to one with virtually none, scares me. I could probably survive near a town or city with (say) 25% of the riches on offer in this region, but sadly I can't see anywhere else in the UK which meets that specification.

[jean]

Are you saying there's nowehere at all in the UK that offers even as much as a quarter of what's available in London?

[Dave2002]

Are you saying there's nowehere at all in the UK that offers even as much as a quarter of what's available in London?

Effectively Yes.

[doversoul1]

an area with a surfeit of culture, arts, learning activities, to one with virtually none, scares me.

This has been how it is around here in SE Kent for probably some 15 years. As has been mentioned up-thread. Adult Education courses are now all exam based for the reason of funding which means centres can only afford to run vocational courses. Even those are hardly viable since these courses have to compete against FE colleges. University of Kent may run evening lecture series but there is no public transport. Even if you are able to attend these lectures, you can hardly call it ‘learning’. In short, Adult Education has long been extinct in this area. Very sad indeed.

[ardcarp]

Are you saying there's nowehere at all in the UK that offers even as much as a quarter of what's available in London?

...a slight change of topic, I know, but children growing up in London have many advantages, eg cultural and sport activities all at hand. But the main unfairness is TRANSPORT. Here in Devon, my teenage g-kids have to pay £2.50 each way for a bus to the nearest very small town which is less than 5 miles away. London kids travel for free free. OK we have the wide open spaces and a quiet and crime-free environment, but for teenagers?

http://www.visitlondon.com/traveller-information/getting-around-london/kids-travel-free-on-london-transport